Pixar Animation Studios gave a screening of its Route 66-themed movie, “Cars,” to theater owners at a Las Vegas trade show Tuesday night. According to Reuters wire service, the theater owners were wowed.
“I thought it was a great movie,” said Kevin MacLeod, executive vice president of Empire Co Ltd’s Empire Theatres, a Nova Scotia-based chain with 380 screens. MacLeod said he believed the film would have the same broad appeal as Pixar’s biggest hit, “Finding Nemo.”
Theater owners have a vested interest in the success of the movie, since their business is selling movie tickets, but Sanders Morris Harris financial analyst David Miller was in the audience and called it “outstanding.”
“If there is any film you know is going to be a hit, it’s this one,” he said Wednesday.
Another attendee, who asked not to be named, described the film’s race-car-themed story line and folksy soundtrack, featuring songs by Sheryl Crow and Brad Paisley, as “the perfect antidote to (gay cowboy movie) ‘Brokeback Mountain”‘ for more conservative red-state audiences.
Mark Walukevich, vice president of international films for National Amusements, which operates 1,425 screens in the United States, Britain, Latin America and Russia, said “Cars” was “fantastic.”
“On a scale of one to 10, it was an 11,” he said. “The digital presentation was excellent, the soundtrack was great. I think internationally it will be a huge hit.”
“Cars” opens wide in theaters on June 9.
I’m trying to figure out why that anonymous viewer is trying to use “Cars” as a political pawn in our latest sociopolitical culture war between tolerance and ignorance. If I’d said something that stupid, I’d ask to remain anonymous, too.
Last time I checked, “Cars” was a high-tech cartoon about talking cars, not an answer film for “Brokeback Mountain.”
Calling “Cars” an antidote to “Brokeback Mountain” is like calling Picasso’s “Guernica” an antidote to the Mona Lisa. What you have here are two very different pieces of art in two very different genres, covering two very different themes, and aimed at two very different audiences (although I imagine I’m not the only person who will have seen — and hopefully enjoyed — both before the summer’s out).
I resent the unspoken implication that “Cars” is some kind of bone Hollywood is throwing to the right wing to make up for releasing a film that conservatives claimed not to like (but generally didn’t bother to watch) last year. Children’s movies are released every summer. They are not an “antidote” to anything. They are just movies aimed at a different audience. Does this person think that parents will say, “Well, Martha … you wanna take the kids to see them gay cowboys make out in a tent, or should we take ’em to see the talking cars instead?”
Please. “Brokeback Mountain” was a fairly well-crafted chick flick that would bore the daylights out of children even if its content *weren’t* inappropriate for young viewers. “Cars” is an animated comedy that will appeal to a wider audience because it was designed specifically to entertain a larger range of ages.
I really hope this will be the last time anybody attempts to drag “Cars” into politics. The film — and the road — deserve much better than to be treated as political tools belonging to one side of the aisle or the other.
Personally, I liked “Brokeback” and am looking forward to “Cars.” But I’ve also been known to split my ticket now and then. Go figure.
Redforkhippie, I agree with your assessment.